I honestly don't know much about this. But I do think it's just the rice cereal that there could be concerns with constipation. I used brown rice cereal and my son didn't have any problems. I also use barley cereal, he likes that a lot.

For the last two months he's been having barley cereal for breakfast with a fruit or veg - started with about a teaspoon, now it's like 2-3 tablespoons. I didn't add it to his lunch and dinners, although I am adding it now for the extra iron and to thicken up his veg (some I made were too watery). There's also oatmeal cereal, and lots of others. I think a big part of it is the iron, so maybe make sure it has that, but I think it's good to start with something other than rice cereal if you have poop concerns. Like I said though, I'm not very experienced with this.

There's an extremely high iron content in rice cereal. When reading the package mine says 100% of their daily intake of iron in 3/4 cup, if that means what i think it means (i can be dense at times so sorry if i'm wrong lol) than you're adding 100% of their daily iron, with the iron that's in your breastmilk/formula, plus whatever else they're getting. I have no idea where i read it, but i once read that breastmilk has around 60% of their daily need for iron in it (wish i could find remember where i read that!!)

With my logic, they're getting iron overload if they're getting the cereal. It just seems like a lot! I was put on iron supplements years ago and the first thing the doctor told me was that they tend to make people constipated and to take one every 3rd day if i have to.

I was giving my LO 2-3oz of breastmilk with enough cereal poured into it to make it pretty thick, so a fair bit! And at dinner he'd get some sort of finger food.

He wouldn't have a bowel movement for 3 days, and then the one time when he did he seemed to be really uncomfortable and it ended up being very clay like and solid. After that i started giving him regular rolled oats made with his breastmilk, no problems there!

I have read that what a full-term baby absorbed in utero, and then what s/he consumes via breast milk provides all the iron a baby needs until around six months. Then the iron stores from the prenatal period are depleted & BF alone doesn't provide sufficient iron. The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends feeding baby iron rich foods, like fortified cereals, spinach, legumes or even meat.

I've also read that iron is the only nutrient that the baby doesn't get enough of via breast milk until they're about 12 months. So aside from iron rich foods, the only reason to feed a baby anything between 6-12 months is to get them interested in the tastes and textures of solids.

As for the original question, I started my baby on oatmeal and found that was constipating. I then switched to brown rice, which is a lot better but still is likely the cause of very mild constipation. I'm just trying her on barley now and then may completely eliminate the rice for a week or so to see if that helps.

My LO has had problems with constipation since birth, and we did encounter constipation when I introduced cereal (both the rice and the oat cereal). I also mix pureed fruit to his cereal in the mornings, and it has helped immensely! I try to stick to fruits that are good for constipation (pears, prunes, plums, apples, etc). He gets about 3 tbsp of cereal each morning (he doesn't always eat all of it), with about 1-2 tbsp of fruit added in.

I'm like you on this one...1 tbs of oat cereal with breast milk, every other day...no constipation issues but he still goes once every 4 days or so. I'm probably gonna do fruit with it just to increase volume.

I put roughly 2 tablespoons and water with mixed fruit or oat cereal. I stopped with the rice cereal altogether. Every now and then I puree prunes too and will mix that in. Seems to help and keep things going smooth.

Thanks everyone:-)
I started cereal for a few reasons but mainly for the iron content as I had also read that their supplies begin dropping and must be added through diet.
I was not keen to start with meats first as to be honest mixing up cereal or pureeing a few vegies seemed easier:-)
I also was not convinced that my DD could eat the volume of greens required to meet her needs.
Ah the decisions we make:-) Luckily all has gone really well but I am thinking that her iron needs are probably not being met with one tbsp of cereal per day.

It sounds like I will up her cereal at least to two tbsp- with apple ( tried it today it was a big hit:-))
And may up it to 3 eventually....thanks CeeCee854 your amounts were very helpful.

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